City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Proofread by Thomas F

Leonas Cardin

‘We have reached the northern gate, General,’ informed Axseer.

Vihra is already on the wall and with Axseer. It won’t take long for them to capture the northern gate as well. Leaving only the Port Gate and the Eastern Gate, where I am fighting.

The battle could be concluded quickly; all I have to do is defeat Daphus.

I am trying, but the enemy is strong, and with that artifact, he didn’t seem to have a limit to his power.

I am using everything I have at a greater efficiency than anyone, I know, but that is not enough to overcome the advantages of the powerful class and the artifact.

“In a few minutes, we will capture the second gate. I am sure you could tell what will happen after that,” I said to him.

Even a simple officer could understand what would happen, much less an experienced man like him.

I could see him gritting his teeth to control his emotions. He also understands what I am trying to do with my words and knows that keeping his emotions in control is key here.

“We won’t have a problem in capturing the port gate. Once we do that, my army will come here and we will crush you, with everything we have.” I stated.

It would have been more arduous if his people hadn’t been rebelling.

The three gates have a third of his forces and a third of the undead. That is a large number; we were dealing with it all, making things a lot easier.

It is why I want my forces to capture all three gates before coming here.

He will be entirely trapped.

“I have fought too hard to reach this place—I will not let you tear me down!” he snarled through clenched teeth. In the next instant, the air itself seemed to crackle, and every hair on my body rose in warning.

…

Cleon Daphus

“I have fought too hard to reach this place—I will not let you tear me down!” I said, gritting my teeth and trying to control the fury of emotions raging in my heart.

It is then that I made the decision. I was hesitating, but seeing how things are going, it had left me with no choice.

A moment later. I moved to pull more power from the artifact.

It resisted, but I pushed through it, and a power entered me. Its vibrating energies entered my body, strengthening me and making me feel strong.

This power is not without a cost; these energies are also injuring me on the deepest level.

Though that is not the greatest cost.

The most significant cost is that I am damaging the artifact by drawing more power than I can handle. I will have to finish Cardin quickly.

So, the damage remained healable until a certain level. If it crosses that level, then only the legacies will be able to heal it.

“Then stop me,” he challenged smugly.

I didn’t reply. Instead, I attacked. Actions speak louder than words, and I want to show this old man the level I am willing to go to protect what I have accomplished.

…

Leonas Cardin

He attacked, and it is powerful. The whole spear was vibrating with the power.

I didn’t dare counterattack and moved my sword defensively.

I don’t want to do that, defence won’t let me win, but defence is the only choice I have against such power.

Clang!

The weapons clashed, and I felt the powerful shock. That cracked my bones, and it horrified me because the real attack is yet to strike me.

The vibration burst travelled through the sword and reached the handle.

It is far more powerful and violent than the vibration bursts he had previously attacked me with.

I had gathered the power of Ironhide, but seeing that it would not be enough, I moved to gather even more, but all I found were a few specks.

I have already gathered everything I could. I cannot bring out more of it.

The vibration burst clashed against the Ironhide. It was only able to stop it for a moment before it began to tear through it.

I felt the backlash building and immediately manipulated the skill.

It had stopped resisting. Instead, I send the vibration throughout my body, never letting it focus on a single part, while simultaneously whittling away its power.

It had caused me immense pain in my body while at the same time making blood leak out of my mouth and drip out of my orifices.

While it was happening, he had moved toward me with another attack.

Clang!

Once more, I moved my sword defensively and defended against the attack. Feeling the massive physical shock, it broke my bones and sent another big burst of violent vibrations.

Once more, I used the Ironhide to manage the vibration burst.

It put immense strain on my body, assaulted my organs, and made me feel dizzy. If not for the Clear Mind, which is helping me with the effects of the vibration, I would have been finished already.

Clang Clang Clang!

Cleon didn’t give me a moment of relief as another attack came and another and another.

I kept defending, while he kept assaulting my body, and soon, something happened that I had been fearing might happen.

Gashes begin to appear on my body.

Under the constant assault of the vibrations, my skin had begun to split; the power of vibration is such that even healing spells covering me couldn’t close these wounds.

Instead, they are stretching it further.

If that wasn’t bad enough, I am getting tiny pieces of my internal organs in my mouth.

My body had begun to collapse. If I didn’t do something soon, within seconds. I would find myself unable to raise even my weapon.

Even now, it is hard. I am feeling torturous pain with every movement I make, but it would be nothing compared to what I will feel when my body collapses.

Though I don’t think I will bear it for more than a second. Because Daphus will put me out of my misery immediately.

I do not fear dying. I would be happy to die after I win this battle. The only thing I want to do before I die is prove people wrong and win.

Prove that I am still the man I was before the death skill.

That is why I wanted to lead the battle once more, and I have finally had the chance. I will not let this opportunity pass me by.

I will persevere and emerge victorious from this battle.

“Not so smug anymore, Cardin?” asked Daphus with a grin as he attacked again. Pushing the power of the artifact suppresses me even further.

He is utilizing every bit of ability his artifact grants him: enhancement, vibration, and suppression.

Suppression?

As I thought about that, I suddenly remembered something from the book I had read; the one that lord Silver had given me.

He gives books to all generals and senior officers. They encompass a wide range of subjects, from classes to skills, strategy, and politics.

It is one of the books I have read about presence skills.

They are also called suppression skills. The author was a believer in the view that presence skills are an imitation of the aura.

Presence skills, like aura, are suppressive and, like the aura, could be manipulated to a high degree.

The author stated that those skills could be combined with every other skill, and their power could be enhanced as a result.

I tried it after reading it, but despite my hundreds of attempts. I have failed to achieve anything.

This time, I’m a drowning man who is clutching at any straws. There is only this single straw, and the chances are very slim, seeing the number of times I have failed.

I have no other choice. If I didn’t do it, my body would collapse and I would die.

It will create a ripple effect and will kill many people.

So, I activated the Commanding Presence, but unlike how people usually use it. I didn’t project it outward, but inward.

Which was easy for me; it didn’t take any effort at all until I tried to merge it with the Ironhide.

Forget merging; there is a powerful repelling force when two skills touch, just as it was the last time. The skills resist any attempt to do that.

Skill works concurrently, and it enhances their power like my Quicksteel and General’s Strike.

One gives speed to my attack, while the other provides power. Using them increases the power of the attack, but it’s not truly a merge.

Merge is when two skills truly merge together, and the books say that doing it is harder than awakening the aura.

I tried, but I was repelled again and again.

Clang!

It was when the spear struck my sword, breaking my bones and then sending another burst of violent vibration toward me.

It entered inside me through my hands, and once more, I felt its violent power.

It seeks to destroy me and my only chance to prove all those people wrong.

‘I will not let it!’ I said to myself, and once more, I moved the skills. This time, not with the force of will, but the understanding I have of the skill.

I don’t think many people in the whole empire understand the skill as profoundly as I.

So instead of pushing them with the force. I move to intwine them—their abilities.

There was the repelling force, but before it could push me. I felt the skills merging into each other as the repelling force rapidly weakened.

By the time skills fully merged, the repelling force vanished.

I moved the skills to face the violent vibration burst, and they clashed. For a moment, I thought it would tear it apart. Instead, vibration bursts enter and begin to sink and whittle.

The merging of two skills strengthens them both. The power of the Ironhide absorbed the vibration, while the suppression of Commanding Presence whittled it away.

The massive power had simply disappeared. Shocking me.

Although that shock didn’t take me away from the battle, it instead made me focus more.

I looked at the spear and for the first time in minutes. I swung my sword toward it. Instead of moving defensively, like I had been doing for the past few minutes, I attacked.

It surprised him. I could see that, but for just a moment, before he became angry.

‘We have captured the northern gate, General,’ informed Axseer. ‘Move to the port gate,’ I ordered and turned off the link, handing command to Trask.

I need to be entirely concentrated on this battle.

As I swung it, I pushed Commanding Presence into Quicksteel and General’s Strike.

Like before, I didn’t force it. I moved gently, with an understanding of the skills, as the commanding skill had merged with both.

Immediately, my skills became stronger, and the suppression power enveloped them.

He sensed it, and I could see that it confused him. If I had been in his place, I would have been as well.

It is something we never seen.

We never even hear about it before; to most people, the effective merging of skills is using them concurrently in a smooth fashion. It amplifies their power, but not to this degree.

Clang!

The weapons clashed, and for the first time, I didn’t get pushed back. It hadn’t even happened earlier, when I matched him blow for blow.

The vibration burst came, and I dealt with it as I had last time.

“What did you do?” he asked.

I didn’t reply. Instead, I swung my sword, understanding the three skills better as I could feel; there was even more power to be harnessed from them.

He reacted instantly and countered.

Clang Clang Clang!

My blade and his spear clashed, and he attacked. I responded, and we clashed. We clashed again and again.

We seemed to be equally matched, fighting blow for blow, but soon, I began to get the upper hand as I made the merge better and better with every attack, harnessing more power from it.

He is shocked, and even now, he is confused, which is making him angrier.

I want him angry. It was why I didn’t explain.

It had become a dance of blades, both of us pushing ourselves beyond the limit. He with his artifact; Me with my skills.

I focus on him with everything I have. I didn’t even notice the situation unfolding around me; the only thing I wanted to do was finish the enemy.

…

Cleon Daphus

‘Retreat, we need to move to the port gate quickly,’ said the Lich.

The lich is escaping along with its horde.

They have already captured two gates and half of the wall of this gate. It is right to retreat; I don’t want to leave everything I have built, but there is no choice.

I won’t be able to continue for long, and once I stop, there will be a massive backlash.

How quickly things have changed. It was just a few seconds ago that I was so close to killing him, and now, suddenly, he had become stronger.

Almost like he had levelled.

He hadn’t even awakened the aura, like the four of these bastards did, but he had somehow been able to increase his power.

‘Support me.’ I asked Lich.

He had now started to suppress me. I couldn’t retreat without support. If I tried, he would kill me.

Lich doesn’t like me, but the next moment, it cast spells to support me. He knows it as well as I do that retreating safely would need both of us.

The spells came, but before they could reach me, it was destroyed by the bitch earth mage.

The Lich cast again, but she destroyed the second spell as well.

Rip!

It was then that the bastard attacked even faster, and he was able to get past my spear and cut across my arm.

I dodged it on time. So, it’s not serious, but it made me focus seriously, seeing the power the old man is wielding. He shouldn’t have it; I am of the lord class, and even I didn’t have this power.

‘Daphus, I am going. Follow me, if you can!’ blurted the Lich, its voice straining. The Lich had abandoned me; it is running without me.

‘Fuck!’ I cursed. It’s awful for me.

A moment later, the undead bastard moved, and he didn’t move alone. It took its entire horde with him. I could see the enemy mage following behind with the human forces.

“Surrender, Daphus, your forces have already started surrendering,” said Cardin.

‘Those bastards!’ I cursed. He didn’t have to tell me that, as the undead retreated. My men didn’t retreat; they remained, and now many are throwing away their weapons.

“Never!” I replied.

I know what surrendering could bring. I have allied with the undead. No one will ever forgive me; I would rather die than surrender.

“Then you leave me with no choice,” replied Cardin with a sigh.

It made me angry. He is acting like he could have finished me off any moment. The battle isn’t over, as long as I kill Cardin, I still have a chance.

The next moment, he moved, and my eyes widened. His speed is greater than ever. He appeared in front of me and swung his sword toward me.

“You will not kill me!” I roared and slashed my spear toward him with everything I had.

Hun!

Suddenly, he moved when our weapons were about to clash. He avoided my spear by less than an inch before appearing to my left.

It alarmed me, and fear appeared in my heart.

I quickly moved my spear, but it was not fast enough. Seeing that, horror filled my heart.

I pulled more power, but it’s not fast enough.

Bam!

The blade finally reached me, and I prepared for its cold touch of steel on my neck, when he flicked his wrist, and I felt a heavy blow across my head.

‘Kill me!’ I roared, but no sound came out of my mouth.

I know what will happen if they capture me alive. I want him to kill me, but my screams went unheard as I began to fade into unconsciousness.

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